Color story

Peach & Apricot dahlias

Soft oranges, melons, and sunset blends. The fastest growing corner of the catalog as warm tones come back.

11 varieties profiled

These palettes are our editorial groupings. The ADS classifies color separately with 15 formal classes; profiles note both where verified.

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Roger Turrell, 1991

Castle Drive

A light blend in soft sherbet peach. Coseytown and Idlewild note it carries less yellow than the varieties it gets confused with.

Formal Decorative BBSells out fast
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Kristine Albrecht, 2022

KA's Boho Peach

Peachy pink that opens warm coral, with the back petals fading as the bloom ages. The two-tone shift from coral to softer peach gives arrangements depth.

Formal Decorative MSells out fast
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John W. Sherwood, 1944

Sherwood's Peach

Glowing peach classed as bronze by the ADS. Idlewild Blooms describes huge, fluffy bronze blooms with the tiniest purple haze in the center, and the petal reverse carries that purple shadow throughout.

Informal Decorative AASells out fast
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Hybridizer unverified

Bracken Palomino

A shifting peachy-orange to peachy-coral, the color moving through the season and even across a single bloom.

Formal Decorative BBSells out fast
form diagram
Hybridizer unverified

Bracken Sarah

A soft peach-apricot blend, the gentler sister to Bracken Palomino in the same warm family.

Formal Decorative BBSells out fast
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Gar Davidson, 1995

Pam Howden

A golden-peach light blend on a clean waterlily, the benchmark of the form on the show bench.

WaterlilyLimited supply
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LeeAnn Huber, 2026

Coseytown EverPeach

A solid midtone orange-peach bred to hold a consistent color all season as daylight shortens, a trait the breeder calls rare. Most peach dahlias drift with the season; this one is selected not to.

Formal DecorativeNearly impossible to find
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H. Brase, 2007

Miss Amara

A light blend that travels through the season rather than holding one note. Heirloom Soul tracks it from soft yellows and buttercreams tinged with pink early to sweet peach later; Sunset View reads peach and blush, Floret peachy yellow. The ADS color class is Light Blend, which for once matches what growers actually see.

Formal Decorative BBLimited supply
form unverified
Hybridizer unverified

Bocherell

Apricot warmed with lemon yellow, and the two colors sit in the same bloom rather than in separate flowers. Breck's reads it as apricot with a hint of lemon yellow at the top; Heirloom Soul as lemon yellow moving to apricot; Pacific Floral simply as apricot and yellow. Dancing the Land adds melon to the list, which is a fair description of where the two meet.

UnclassifiedLimited supply
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Hybridizer unverified

Natalie G

A light blend of peach and pink that different growers see from different angles. Floret describes melon pink rounded blooms with a light lavender dusting, Sunset View a blush pink, Summer Dreams soft peach, and Heirloom Soul deep apricot pink. The ADS color class recorded by Micro Flower Farm is Light Blend, which is the registry's way of saying the same thing.

Formal Decorative BBLimited supply
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Swan Island Dahlias, 2010

Nicholas

The ADS files it as orange, chip OR4, and Swan Island and Sunset View both record orange in their spec fields. Every description of the actual flower reaches for peach instead: Heirloom Soul calls it sunset peach tones, Sunset View peachy, Triple Wren warm. Filed here under peach and apricot because that is where a buyer would look for it, with the registered orange class noted.

Informal Decorative BBLimited supply